Reviews

By Naoko Takeuchi. Released in Japan as “Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon” by Kodansha, serialized from various sources. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

And so we come to the final final volume of the Sailor Moon manga. Kodansha has indicated there’s an artbook coming along, but for the moment, this is it. And I really wish that it ended better. I’ve been a huge supporter and preacher for this entire series, pointing out how awesome it is, and thus it saddens me that this collection of three short stories has only one that really measures up to the standards set by the series in the past. And no, that’s not the one the anime chose to adopt into a movie. (I do give big props for that cover, though, which has a post-coital Usagi and Mamoru in bed, with Usagi winking at the viewer. Fourth-wall breaking has always been in the Sailor Moon manga to a degree, but this really takes it in new directions of cute.)

Let’s start with the story that takes up over half this volume, Princess Kaguya’s Lover. This was adapted into the 2nd of the 3 Sailor Moon movies, Sailor Moon S. And indeed that’s quite deliberate: Takeuchi wrote it with a movie in mind. I don’t think it ran in a magazine, but instead appeared straight in the original tankobon. It also stars Luna. Luna, Artemis, and Diana have gotten dramatically less focus in the manga than they did in the anime, which ironically helps the story a bit here. We’ve never seen Artemis pining over Luna quite as much as we do in animated form, so there’s less bafflement at Luna’s treatment of him. And the invasion of yet another female villain poised to destroy the world is handled with the usual Sailor Moon aplomb. At heart, though, this is a love story about a cat and a human, and that’s just sort of uncomfortable, even if Sailor Moon does transform Luna into a human so she can say goodbye to her (already in love with his childhood friend) crush. (Also, Venus and Jupiter have birthdays 6 weeks apart! Throw them separate parties, sheesh.)

Casablanca Memory is the reason to pick up this volume, as it’s excellent. Given Rei had to share a short story with Minako last time (and that really was Minako’s more than Rei’s), it’s fitting she gets one of her own. This takes place early on in the Senshi’s lives, around the time they first met Jupiter. Rei’s background has been quietly mentioned before, but this story is all about it: her father is a prominent politician with no time for family, and has assistants to remember things like “when is Rei’s birthday” and “get her something nice.” Her mother was a quiet supporter of her father, but fell ill and died, which Rei has never forgiven him for. Then there’s Kaido, the assistant of Rei’s father, who’s like an older brother to her… or maybe something more. The story isn’t perfect – it’s never clear if Kaido is possessed or was posing as a Dark General all this time, and his death is also very ambiguous. But it really gives you a good sense of Rei, and is at least very much in character.

And so we come to Parallel Sailor Moon, the final story in the manga, and the nadir of the series. This was written a couple of years after the series ended for an artbook, and the author noted it was in an alternate universe AND THANK GOD, because everyone in this is shallow and awful. Takeuchi has, throughout the manga, had a bad habit of making her characters shallow and annoying for the sake of humor. Since this story is all humor, that’s all we get. The premise has our heroines all grown up and married, with kids of their own, and apparently not senshi as they all live in modern-day Tokyo. They’re all noted to be daughters of prominent families who had arranged marriages, and the kids are “wise above their years” cynics who would not be out of place on an 80s ABC sitcom. Usagi has had a 2nd child, Ko. Ko is hyper-annoying and loves to eat, and everyone hates her. There’s not even the “we love Usagi for all her faults” here, except for one panel where they realize she’s in trouble. It’s just “Ugh, her.” I just… I identify with the characters more than anything, so seeing them portrayed like this hurts my soul. I laughed once the entire story, when Hotaru remarked about how they were going to take over the world as civil servants. That was it.

There are a few extras here, with a timeline for the series (real-life timeline, i.e. publishing dates) and Takeuchi’s description of visiting Cape Kennedy to see space shuttle launches. But overall, despite Rei being cool and beautiful, this book is for those who want t have the complete collection, and I suspect that of all the re-releases it will be the one I dip into least. Still love Sailor Moon, though.

By Mamoru Hosoda, Iqura Sugimoto, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Released in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten, serialized in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Vertical.

Adaptations of something into another form, be it a manga, anime, novel series, or movie always carries an inherent risk that it won’t recapture the moments you loved from the original material, or that people will say it’s dumbed down or exaggerated. And yet the appeal is there as well – I really loved this in one form, so why not take a look at it from a different angle? Certainly companies hope you’ll spend your money to check something out that you liked before. Luckily, with Summer Wars, I seem to be one of the few people who never saw the original movie this is based on, so I came at this adaptation fresh. And now I really want to see the movie, and worry the original won’t match up. As this first volume was just terrific.

Things start off looking like a very typical shonen romantic comedy. Kenji is a high schooler, somewhat shy, good at math but not good enough to be in a national competition. He has a crush on Natsuki, who takes kendo and is the pure awesome Japanese high school student. One day she asks for a favor, though is cagey about the details. Those with experience in such stories won’t be surprised by what happens next: he’s pretending to be her boyfriend, so that she can get through a huge family reunion without a lot of hassle. And a lot of the beats that follow are familiar as well, though they’re all handled deftly. Some of the family like the kid, some don’t. There’s an older cousin that Natsuki has a crush on, which makes Kenji feel awkward. And her awesome old grandma sees right through both of them, realizing that Natsuki made this up, but also that Kenji is a good kid.

But that’s only half the story, and this is also a techno-thriller. Much of the world works in the manga via a virtual reality network. One day the network is hacked, and it’s put out on TV that it was Kenji who did it. (This turns out to be false, and there are many culprits who were conned into doing this, which I think is a shame. I loved the joy on Kenji’s face as he solved the math problem that ended up being a hack, and wish he had been more culpable later on.) And now the world is slowly spiraling into chaos by an AI that turns out to be far smarter than it was previously thought. Natsuki’s family, who are huge, positioned in just the right places, and can work together awesomely, try to stop the AI… so the AI kills off Natsuki’s grandmother, in a way that reads “this could be a coincidence, but really probably isn’t.) Now things are at a crisis point.

This is a two-volume manga in the Vertical edition (originally 3 in Japan), and it’s paced almost perfectly, with every scene having meaning. Even the Summer Wars title works well – the Summer and the Wars balancing each other out – romantic comedy with heartwarming family, and computers destroying everything we must now stop them. I didn’t mention Kazuma, another of Natsuki’s cousins who’s a young (and androgynous -I thought he was a she for a while) prodigy who will no doubt have a larger part to play in Vol. 2, which also suggests that Kenji will find his inner General. This manga really makes me want to see the original, one of the best things you can say about an adaptation, but also works great as its own story. And the couple’s cute, too. Highly recommended.

By Shimura Takako. Released in Japan by Enterbrain, serialization ongoing in the magazine Comic Beam. Released in North America by Fantagraphics.

Switching to a new environment can be crippling to a young person, particularly if they’re going through a lot of other things as well. So it is with the cast of Wandering Son and middle school. Nitori tries to continue to define himself while also discovering something he’s genuinely good at, Takatsuki discovers she’s no longer the only one in the room doing what she does, and Chiba finds that even if she’s gone from overly emotional to overly stoic, she still has difficulty dealing with anyone. So, in other words, it’s an excellent depiction of anyone’s life in middle school.

We also meet some new cast members, who basically fly into Takatsuki’s circle of friends and explode like a bomb. Sarashina also sometimes wears male clothing, but it’s nothing to do with gender identity and more to do with her being an eccentric loudmouth who does whatever the hell she wants. Naturally, Takatsuki is drawn to her, as not caring about what people think is something everyone else in this book has trouble getting past. She also has a best friend, though, Shirai, who clearly is very close to her, and is very unhappy with this new girl making advances on her… um, friend. There are no yuri overtones here, really, but Shirai certainly exhibits all the classic signs of jealousy. She’s written a little flatly, so I hope we find out more about her later.

As for Chiba, you really want to reach out and give her a hug, but there’s no way she’d let you. She can’t get over her own feelings of hatred/jealousy towards Takatsuki, and attempting to suppress all emotion is not working out very well when everyone around you is giving you an excuse to go off like a rocket. So the answer, clearly, is to be antagonistic to *everyone* – even the girls in a higher grade than her, a definite no-no in Japanese society. I really hope Chiba can eventually move on past her repressed and upsetting anger, because right now she’s on a very dark road, and given she’s only 12 or so that’s depressing in itself.

Meanwhile, our hero and heroine are both facing the realities of puberty. Nitori and Ariga record their voices on tape, so they’ll be able to remember what they were like before they change. Nitori is a little upset at the idea that he won’t be able to dress as a girl anymore. Takatsuki is having an even worse time… her sports coach is demanding she wear a bra to practice, another reminder that her gender is trying to impose limits on her. The two of them finally make up, sort of, in a touching yet somewhat sad scene as they both worry about the future. Nitori, however, seems to get an idea for it, and begins to start writing a story based on his own experiences. I like the idea of Nitori’s insecurities and dreams fueling his creativity, and wonder if Takatsuki will be able to help in the process besides just having her life give him ideas.

All in all, this was an excellent transitional book in the series. As we settle into middle school, things are bound to get even more awkward, and I hope our cast finds the strength to make it through.

Story by Ryukishi07; Art by Karin Suzuragi. Released in Japan as “Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: Matsuribayashi-hen” by Square Enix, serialized in the magazine Gangan Joker. Released in North America by Yen Press.

As I’ve been following the Higurashi manga, I’ve also been slowly going through the original visual novel, which MangaGamer has released here in North America (don’t look for their site – Higurashi is their token ‘not porn’ title). I just happen to be at the appropriate place in the novel as I am in the manga, so am able to compare them even more. It’s not clear how closely Ryukishi07 checked the content of the manga with the Higurashi artists – I know he’s very involved with the Umineko manga, particularly the final volumes, to correct certain issues with the novels – but certainly the manga glosses over a lot, being a sort of “greatest hits” compared to the deep immersion of the original. That said, where the manga does succeed is in the emotion. Be it heartwarming, sad tears, or dull horror, the manga delivers the goods here.

Nothing better demonstrates the difference between the two than the fate of Rika’s mother. The visual novel has this scene from the perspective of Ooishi, who is at the Festival waiting to see if anyone is killed. He’s on hand for the death of Rika’s father, made to look like a heart attack, and tries to follow the group back to the Irie Clinic but is hamstrung by traffic. Thus, we only hear that the wife is later found missing, supposedly having drowned herself in the swamp with a suspicious letter left behind. The manga, on the other hand, follows Rika’s mother. Rika’s mom has always been fairly high-strung from what little we’ve seen of her. It’s not hard to figure out why… Rika must be an amazingly difficult child to bring up. And what with the clinic using her as a guinea pig, and her father basically going along with it, her nerves just stretch to the breaking point. As such, she is ill-equipped to deal with Takano.

Takano remains fascinating, and though I think the visual novel does a better job of showing that a lot of this is Hinamizawa Syndrome rather than “lulz, I’m evil like that”, there’s enough here to keep everyone happy. Notably, for the sake of her research, she grovels at the feet of Rika’s parents, and when that fails, seems genuinely at a loss until Okonogi suggests “taking care of” Rika’s parents. Murder comes as a surprise to her… but once it’s in her head, she doesn’t hold back, as Rika’s parents instantly make the transition from “people” to “research subjects”. As such, she can easily justify using Rika’s mother as a live test subject. The murder is terrifying, and does not remotely hold back, with blood flying everywhere and Takano’s insane rictus grin it’s straight out of an Italian horror film.

Later on, Takano faces an even bigger setback when her mentor dies, and it’s shown that he was basically the only thing keeping her project going. Higurashi has a very realistic and cynical take on the Japanese political system and how power-grabbing it can be, particularly in the early 80s when this takes place. Takano once again has everything almost crumble around her, and it becomes apparently that even though she’s the source of all of Rika’s misery, she herself is being manipulated throughout this story, not just by Okonogi, but also a new faction who wants to use her in order to facilitate their own rise to power. If it works, great. If she dies, meh. And it’s clear the Mountain Hounds work for them, not Rika *or* Takano. Honestly, those two really have so much in common. They should talk over a nice cup of tea when this is over.

The visual novel goes into great detail on the pasts of most of the characters, and the manga manages to include some of it – Okonogi’s mourning for his father, and meeting his mentor after WWII shows why things starting with that guy’s death have led to his own obsession, even if it’s misdirected at the Sonozakis. Speaking of the Sonozakis, we see Mion’s grief and anger over Satoshi’s disappearance (Shion is carefully absent here), and her grandmother doing her best to bring “new blood” into the town while still trying to look old and crotchety. That new blood is the Maebara family, with Keiichi trying to start over after the BB gun incident. Rika and Hanyuu are at their most blatant here, with Rika actively showing she knows who they are and relying on people not realizing she’s living the same life over and over again so they laugh it off.

We also see Hanyu’s past, several hundred years ago. She really is a supernatural being, and her earnest attempts to stop the violence between the two tribes occupying Onigafuchi is heartwarming. I do think the drama needed more time to develop – as it is, it’s not as effecting simply as it goes by so fast – Hanyu gets her own daughter to kill her with a giant sword, which should have been given more weight. But then, Hanyu in general is the most problematic character of Higurashi’s so this is likely appropriate.

There are a few other things I felt didn’t work. Given how much Rika is using her past knowledge to make events work for her, her memories “catching up” with her at the end isn’t explained well enough, and seems to be awkwardly shoehorned in so there can be a cliffhanger. Also, four years pass between the start and end of this volume, yet the kids – all growing like weeds, one would think – look exactly the same in 1980 as they do in 1983. (The visual novel has a similar issue – the sprites never change.) More realism, please.

So now, all the pieces are in place – even Akasaka is having memories of a past life where his wife died and Rika was slaughtered, and is prepared to make his way to Hinamizawa immediately. Will all this be enough to defeat Takano and the forces that are manipulating her? And will Shion ever show up in this again? We’ll find out in January. In the meantime, this is still a very good adaptation with a lot of tragic and emotional scenes.

By Maki Minami. Released in Japan as “Seiyu Ka!” by Hakusensha, serialized in the magazine Hana to Yume. Released in North America by Viz.

Long-time readers of this blog will know that I am a huge fan of the Japanese shoujo magazine Hana to Yume. Sadly, I have been increasingly unable to rave about its style of shoujo recently, as CMX and Tokyopop went under, and Viz has licensed less and less from the title, preferring to concentrate on their own owners’ magazines. This makes me very happy when I see a new series starting up, specially one from an artist I’ve liked before, Maki Minami. Her prior series here was Special A, a romantic comedy with an emphasis on the comedy, which had all of Hakusensha’s usual strong point, as well as all its weak points. The text and art tends to clutter the page (Hakusensha shoujo packs the page, Shueisha shoujo opens it up), the plotting could be insanely frustrating, particularly in terms of how drawn out the romance was, and character’s growth ended as soon as their function in the story was complete. Now we have her new series, which has many of the same types of people we’ve seen before. Can it fix its predecessor’s issues?

Our heroine has the name Hime Kino, which already sounds like a pseudonym. She wants to follow in the footsteps of her inspiration and become a voice actress. There’s just one problem – she has a deep, husky voice, and she wants to sound like a cute girl. Nevertheless, the academy lets her in anyway, and it’s hinted there’s some deeper, behind the scenes reason. The solution, of course, is obvious – she should play sexy pretty bishonen, which female voice artists do in Japan ALL THE TIME. It’s such an obvious solution that we see it happening at the end of the first chapter, where she has to fill in as the prince in a Snow White dramatization. But Hime clearly wants to be cute, and girly, ad adorable. I imagine a large part of this plotline will be showing her how she should really succeed at what she’s best at.

Cute vs. cool is a classic modern shoujo trope. Usually, heroines want to be the former but end up being the latter, and Hime easily fits into that pattern. And naturally, she’s never more attractive than when she’s acting strong and powerful and masculine. This is a reverse harem manga, so we already have the obvious winner (a sullen brunet – sigh – named Senri Kuno), as well as a few obvious runner-ups. We have the traditional one female friend. I’m hoping for a second as time goes on. And, this being Maki Minami, we have a lot of incredibly goofy guys doing dumb things – there is some fun humor here.

There are some issues, of course. I am rather weary of bullying by teachers in Japan being a) accepted by the institution as good for students in the long run, and b) not called out because the student has to get stronger on her own. It *sounds* admirable, but I think teaches an incomplete lesson. Hime is also a bit aggressively clueless, though so far she’s not quite as bad as Hikari from Special A, who set new records for denseness. Lastly, as with a lot of mainstream shoujo, there’s nothing really original here – just a few old cliches given a new paint job. But I’m perfectly happy with that as long as it’s fun. And for the most part, Voice Over! is fun. I’ll be looking forward to Vol. 2.

By Reiji Suzumaru. Released in Japan as “Jigokuren” by Futabasha, serialized in the online magazine Web comic High!. Released in North America by Seven Seas.

Everyone discusses how difficult it is to write comedy, and the same applies to the person who is trying to review it. One person’s subtle satire is another’s amazingly offensive insult, and one person’s tasteless bodily function joke is another’s “BUT FARTING IS HILARIOUS!”. There are almost as many types of humor in the world as there are people, and sadly I am only allowed to use my own here. So I have to note that Love in Hell just didn’t quite gel for me, despite an interesting premise. Indeed, the author came up with the premise and setting first, which shows, as I think it’s a lot more fleshed out than the characters.

The use of Hell here is interesting. It seems throughout the volume like your typical city, only with suffering and pain added to every equation. You need to get jobs, earn money, etc. But the way you earn money is by, well, atoning for your sins. Usually in the form of having your head chopped off, being boiled to death, etc. Being hell it’s quite nonlethal, but the pain hurts the same. In fact, we’re even told at one point that this is one of the nicer bits of hell, and we see a hole that goes down to a lower level where they keep the adulterers and murderers.

Our hero is not an adulterer or murderer, and indeed is somewhat surprised to find that he’s in hell, as he can’t quite think what he did that was bad enough. He seems to be fairly shiftless and thoughtless throughout, but by the end of the volume we’re not quite sure how he ended up here either. Rintaro is nice enough so that you’re rooting for him in the book, but he’s not really possessed of any good virtues because… well, he needs to be someone who’s believably sent to hell. He’s just a dumb manga romantic comedy schmuck, only here instead of getting punched into the sky Love Hina-style, he gets maimed and brutalized.

The girl on the cover, our heroine, is Kiyori. Like the hero, she comes from a certain ‘cliched romantic comedy manga’ background: easily embarrassed, neophyte who’s trying hard but bad things keep happening to her. The first bad thing that happens to her in Rintaro, as her promotion prospects are tied to him actually putting in repentance time in hell, and so far it’s not going well. We also have him walking in on her naked, and seeing she pads her bra, something which didn’t need hell to be one of the oldest manga cliches.

In the end, while the premise is interesting, and there’s promise of a more serious plot in the 2nd volume, the characters simply didn’t grab me enough to make this rise above ‘serviceable’. I smiled a couple of times, and I’m sure the couple will eventually be cute and moe (there’s only 3 volumes, so this shouldn’t get too drawn out). I wonder if it wouldn’t have been funnier in a 4-koma style. As it is, though, Rintaro and Koyori just can’t quite manage to carry this title on their backs.

By Yusuke Kishi and Toru Oikawa. Released in Japan as “Shin Sekai Yori” by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

The question of “how much fanservice is too much” has come up often in discussion of manga in North America, and it’s usually the case that we have a lower tolerance of it than Japan does. That said, there’s simply so much of it, particularly in Kodansha’s Weekly Magazine and its monthly spinoff, that sometimes you just have to smile and nod at the boobs and move on. I review Fairy Tail every month, and Negima back when it ran, and rarely commented on the fact that every 4 or 5 chapters would just be a blatant “look at all the naked women” bath scene or shower scene or whatever. It was rarely connected too much to the plot, so could easily be edited out of my memory.

It’s impossible to do that with From the New World, whose fanservice goes above and beyond the call of duty. The series has an intriguing post-apocalyptic premise, which a town teaching kids magic and the kids then going over the fence to explore the forbidden countryside. There is some horror thrown into the mix, as one of the lead characters gets unpersoned about 1/3 of the way through, to such an extent that the others don’t even remember she existed – that was handled quite well. And the action scenes, when they do come, are pretty decent. The story starts with a “here is how everything fell apart” flashforward, so no doubt we will soon see the entire world destroyed or something like that.

But it needs to be said: Saki and Maria (and Reiko when she was with them) have naked bathtime fun, with groping. There’s jealousy of the guys in the group, which leads to “you must THINK ONLY OF ME” and more groping. And then at the end it goes above and beyond, and there’s a full-on lesbian sex scene. I expect hot springs nudity from my Kodansha titles, but this boggled my mind, and compared to the prior mood of the series seemed so utterly jarring. I’ve no doubt that part of this was on purpose, but only part – I think a great deal of this series sells on guys buying it to see girls having hot lesbian sex. (FYI for yuri fans, think Kannazuki no Miko more than Maria-sama Ga Miteru.)

So I went to research what the hell was up with this… and wish I hadn’t. The manga is based on an award-winning novel, and also has an anime to its name. Apparently there is a vague plot-related reason for the hot lesbian sex, which I sort of guessed. But apparently two of the guys are also supposed to be in a relationship with each other. This was made clear in the novels, and toned down but kept there in the anime. The manga seems to have removed the male relationship entirely. And from what I can gather, the yuri fanservice gets even more blatant as the series goes on. I guess the editors know what sort of audience they want the series to connect to.

If you can get past the sex scenes and nudity, there’s a dark and twisted science fiction story here that might eventually pay off. I just found it impossible to do so. Which, given the amount of manga I read with nudity and yuri in it, says a lot.

By Hajime Isayama. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

This review has spoilers for the big reveal that everyone on the internet already knows.

The eighth volume of Attack on Titan begins in a very interesting place, as we start off with a day in the life of Annie and her fellow military police. As you can imagine, they’re just as quirky a squad as our heroes, in their own way, but their bosses are no Erwin Smith – you sense a certain uncaring laziness to them. Annie gets into an interesting philosophical discussion on the nature of idealism and power, and I certainly get her point that at times it can be terrifying to have a true believer in charge of things. All this is upended, however, when she runs into Armin, freshly returned from the outside. Eren is about to be captured/dissected, and he has a plan…

Of course, all this is a ruse, as Armin has merely figured out what the rest of us suspected two volumes ago: Annie is the female titan. From the moment that we saw Eren could become a Titan, we wondered if it was something unique to him (likely due to his father), or if other titans had similar secret identities. There’s a rather amusing joke here where Armin describes the various subtle clues he discovered that led him to think Annie was the culprit, and then Mikasa chimes in “plus they look alike”. (Speaking of Mikasa, there’s an undertone of jealousy in her conversations about Annie I didn’t really like. I know she and Eren are close, but I really don’t want to see their relationship go down a romantic road.)

So there’s a big, city-destroying battle between Eren-Titan and Annie-Titan that ends with Annie encasing herself in amber in order to avoid getting captured and tortured. More importantly, we know certain Titans now have motivation beyond “kill and eat”. Certainly Annie, as a Titan, took delight in killing, particularly with Levi’s team members. But she also seems to have a troubled past with her own father (more similarities to Eren), and a deeper reason exists here. As for everyone else, the rest of the 104th squad are quickly quarantined in case, y’know, Titanism is contagious, but they all seem to be OK.

Then there’s the other big reveal in this episode (which is right about where the anime ended, if you want to start reading from that point on). In the fight with Annie, Mikasa destroyed a chunk of the outer wall. Inside… is a Titan, in suspended animation. A Colossal Titan. The revelation that the walls are full of Titans sort of waiting patiently for something is rather mind-boggling, and I wonder if the obviousness of the Annie reveal was to make this plot twist more impressive. It also finally ties in with the religious leaders who have popped up occasionally throughout this series, and who were clearly aware of the secret of the walls. Bringing devout believers into a series like this is unnerving – on purpose – but not quite as unnerving as seeing the formerly eccentric and happy Hange almost murder a man in cold blood. War does things to people,’s psyches, and war secrets do not help all that much.

The cliffhanger announces that Wall Rose has now been breached by Titans, so I presume Vol. 9 will have a lot more action. There’s many places this story could go from here, a pivotal volume in the series.

(Also, go look for the “Annie Are You OK” video on Youtube, and you will never get Smooth Criminal out of your head while reading this.)

By Yuma Ando and Yuki Sato. Released in Japan as “Tanteiken Sherdock” by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Weekly Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

It’s a rather odd time here in North America, where we have had a series of Sherlock Holmes adaptations of various stripes over the last couple of years. JManga had a Holmes volume up that was sort of supernatural horror with bishonen Holmes. Young Miss Holmes pays close attention to the canon even as it welds in a precocious niece. And now we have Sherlock Bones, where Sherlock is reincarnated as a dog in modern-day Japan, and fights crime with the help of a young boy who gets to be his Doctor Watson. As you can imagine, this one is geared more towards younger readers, but certainly it’s not juvenile. We’re dealing with murders here.

The author is used to this type of detective mystery, of course, being the creator of Kindaichi Case Files under another pseudonym. The story is the important thing here, and Sherlock’s presence is merely a vehicle for it (as well as for a few weak “Sherlock is a dog now” jokes). Unlike Young Miss Holmes, so far the creators seems to have very little use for the Watson canon, only using the broadest strokes such as Sherlock’s pipe. As for Watson, or rather Takeru Wajima, he’s a typical shonen protagonist, bieng fairly normal but with a stubborn stick-to-it-ivness that will serve him well in dealing with Sherlock’s whims.

The book starts us off with a fairly easy attempted murder where the clues are all laid out in the open, before moving on to the main story involving a crime where the murderer is fairly obvious, but we have to figure out motive, means, etc. Indeed, motive proves to be the key here, as we learn that the culprit isn’t just evil like that but has a deeply tragic reason for committing the crime. It helps that the victim isn’t that nice a kid – but he’s still a KID, so there’s not that much sympathy.

This runs in Shonen Magazine, so the mysteries aren’t meant to be all that hard to solve, and you can usually come up with the solution at the same time as Sherlock does. Of course, since it does run in Shonen Magazine, there’s also a bit of fanservice focus on boobs ‘n butts, though certainly less than you’d see in Fairy Tail or Negima. In the end, this is a mystery anthology series along the lines of Case Closed or Kindaichi, with “Sherlock Holmes is a dog” as the gimmick. We do see a girl who’s meant to be a love interest of some sort, though given the nature of the series she could easily be killed off in Volume 2 for all I know. But for the most part I expect this to be episodic, which makes it a good series to dip in and out of without worrying too much about missing anything. It’s cute and fun, if not all that gripping.

By Nico Tanigawa. Released in Japan as “Watashi ga Motenai no wa dō Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!” by Square Enix, serialized on the website Gangan Comics Online. Released in North America by Yen Press.

Despite a title longer than your arm, this new manga series is not, in fact, based on a light novel. It’s usually shortened to “WataMote” in fan discussions – indeed, I’ve used that tag for my Category on this review, rather than screw up the sidebar. Still, with a title like that, if you’re someone who’s been a fan of anime over the past few years, it comes with certain expectations even before you read it. High school slice-of-life, comedic misunderstandings, discussion of otaku interests. And indeed, all that is true. But it’s the heroine who drives this title, and Tomoko Kuroki is not going to simply lie back and be cute and moe.

Tomoko gives new meaning to the term “socially awkward”. In her head, she’s got it all down – she’s starting high school, will make new friends, get a boyfriend, and her life will be wonderful. In reality, not only is she a cripplingly shy girl who can barely manage the most basic interaction, but she’s not even cute and adorable like most manga heroines with those issues. Tomoko can be hard to like. She emotionally manipulates her brother, is crass and opportunistic, and has an inability to see even basic human interaction and understand what it means.

Notably, she’s not bullied or picked on at all by any of her peers – they mostly just ignore her, but it’s not in a ‘she’s creepy’ way, she simply rarely registers on their radar. When occasional peers do speak to her, it tends to be friendly, and mostly the only time they rear back in awkward horror is when she says or does something incredibly inappropriate. Honestly, that’s a little unrealistic, but the mangaka doesn’t really want to go in a bullying direction here – Tomoko makes her own problems. We can’t even blame a poor family life – her mother and brother seem to be perfectly fine with social interaction, though her brother regards her as incredibly annoying and exhausting. And, well, he’s correct.

An anime adaptation of this aired over the summer, and many people kept asking themselves whether the intention of the work was to laugh at Tomoko’s foibles, feel pity for her attempts to bond with life and other people, or just feel incredibly uncomfortable at watching her existence? The answer, of course, is all three. We don’t want to be seen to laugh at someone like Tomoko, but honestly, some of the behavior here is pretty hilarious, and her snark is also pointed and amusing. That said, there aren’t real punchlines here, just a setup that goes off the rails. Instead of a punchline, we see Tomoko sitting on a park swing, looking miserable, as her brother silently stares at her. Or in a bathroom, ripping a pair of panties to shreds in a terror-stricken bout of mortification.

This manga seems to push against its own audience, which is otaku-oriented males. At one point, Tomoko talks to her one friend (who I hope we see more of), and is asked about the new anime season. Tomoko blithely responds that it’s all moeblob shows this year. This may be slice-of-life, but it’s no K-On! I do want to read more, but I am very grateful that it’s only coming out here every three months, as Tomoko is as exhausting and frustrating to read as she must be to live with. Definitely recommended, but be aware that this title pulls in several different directions at once, and deliberately doesn’t resolve any of them.